Resource Management

Textile manufacturing has a huge environmental footprint. It can pollute large amounts of water per ton of fabric, uses many harmful chemicals, and consumes tremendous amounts of energy in dyeing and finishing processes. Compounding this situation is that the textile industry has migrated to countries abroad with still-developing environmental regulatory systems, e.g.,  China, India, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, seriously degrading local drinking water resources.  

The National Resources Defense Council's (‘NRDC', a nonprofit environmental protection organization) team of health experts has pioneered market-based approaches that could help improve global industrial pollution problems associated with apparel while improving the bottom line. NRDC and its partners in ‘Clean by Design' (http://www.nrdc.org/international/cleanbydesign/default.asp ) recommend 10 practical, easy-to-implement best practices for textile mills  (http://www.nrdc.org/international/cleanbydesign/files/rsifullguide.pdf ) that significantly reduce water, energy or chemical use and improve manufacturing efficiency. Multinational apparel retailers and brands can reduce the footprint of their global supply chain by encouraging mills to adopt these best practices and rewarding those that do so with more business.  

The NRDC and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have made a formal commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to actively engage with textile suppliers in China to reduce their environmental footprint under NRDC's Clean by Design project.  Also in a separate move, H&M reached a similar agreement with the NRDC to implement best practices under the Clean by Design project.  The sheer size of the textile industry in China and its environmental impact prompted the NRDC to launch the Responsible Sourcing Initiative in 2008  (http://www.nrdc.org/international/cleanbydesign/default.asp ) as part of the larger Clean by Design effort,which drew major apparel industry players, including Wal-Mart, H&M, Levi Strauss & Co., Gap Inc., Nike Inc. and Li & Fung Ltd.